‘Smartphone addiction’ seems to only be getting stronger

When it comes to our smartphones, we seem to be more addicted than ever.

Even as the tech industry is trying to figure out what a post-smartphone world will look like, smartphone users are spending more and more time with their handsets. Indeed, in various countries around the world, smartphone users last year spent at least an hour a day, on average, glued to their devices — and often much longer, according to research from Statista. In Brazil, the average hit nearly five hours!

These numbers are even more telling when you put them in context. In all of the countries Statista examined, the amount of time users spent on their mobile devices has gone up since 2012. In the US, for example, the average smartphone user spent an hour more on his device last year than he did four years earlier.

With smartphones becoming more powerful and able to do more things, it makes sense that people would spend more time on them. Even with all the hype surrounding AI, augmented reality, and other futuristic tech, it’s good to remember that many of us still live in a smartphone world.